Nutrition Transition
Popkin-described sequence of dietary and lifestyle shifts that populations undergo with economic development, from traditional plant-based to Western diets high in animal products, refined grains, and ultra-processed foods.
Popkin's five stages: hunter-gatherer, famine, receding famine, degenerative disease (nutrition transition), behavioral change. The transition is accelerating globally, with low- and middle-income countries experiencing rising obesity and diet-related noncommunicable disease while undernutrition persists ("double burden of malnutrition"). Drivers include urbanization, food system industrialization, marketing, and women's labor force participation. MNHD Ch 112 (Walls) frames it as a policy challenge of the next century.
How one textbook covers it
Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 12th ed. — Ch 112: The Nutrition Transition
Popkin's five stages: hunter-gatherer, famine, receding famine, degenerative disease (nutrition transition), behavioral change. The transition is accelerating globally, with low- and middle-income countries experiencing rising obesity and diet-related noncommunicable disease while undernutrition persists ("double burden of malnutrition"). Drivers include urbanization, food system industrialization, marketing, and women's labor force participation. MNHD Ch 112 (Walls) frames it as a policy challenge of the next century.
Related terms
Global food systems, Obesity, Ultra-processed food